Comment EI-19245
Received or sent (printed as 1/5/2013)
The environmental impact statement for the proposed Tongue River Railroad should analyze the following: Public convenience and necessity: This proposed railroad is not for the “public convenience and necessity” which is what is required in order for a body to get the power of eminent domain and condemnation authority. This railroad would serve only one coal company giant, Arch Coal, which intends to sell the coal to China and other Asian countries. Impact along entire route: The impact of coal train traffic on the environment and communities all along the transport route to the ocean must be considered. Costs to local communities for increased infrastructure and its maintenance, traffic delays, noise, health effects on people and wildlife due to increased diesel pollution and escaping coal dust, and economic impacts on tourism along the route, including especially the iconic Columbia River Gorge, must also be studied. Greenhouse gas emissions: The reality of climate change is established, and our future survival requires it be addressed. The Tongue River Railroad will allow coal that should stay in the ground to be burned in dirty Chinese plants and will fuel intolerable, decades-long increases in carbon dioxide emissions. Toxic emissions are carried to the US, with highest impacts on far-western states, where we are already having challenges with acidification of water bodies and impacts on amphibians and other wildlife. The greenhouse gas costs of Otter Creek coal go far beyond just burning the coal. It must be mined, hauled by trains fueled by diesel to West Coast terminals, shipped overseas by ships fueled by diesel, and then hauled in China to the plants.
Submitted by: Estelle Voeller · Medford, Oregon
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-30186/comment/EI-19245 · back to the docket sheet